Internet for participatory democracyThe experience of Indonesian NGOs to develop participatory democracy by the use of the InternetYohanes Widodo

Supervisors: Dr. Rico Lie Dr. Ir. Freerk van WiersumCommunication Strategies Group Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group

Structure

Introduction Objective and research questions Conceptual Framework Methodology Results Conlusions Recommendations

Introduction (1/5) Background of the study

Internet: a global system of interconnected computer network (network of network).

Internet use: information, communication, interaction (Desember, 1997)

A strategic medium for socio-political transformation informative, interactive, participative, and decentralized medium.

Low cost and easy to use

Promising medium for public participation

Introduction (2/5) Indonesian NGOs

Ubiquitous• Third actor beyond government and private bussiness. • Develops and advocates public interest • Alternative models of community empowerment

The growth of civil society is represented by NGOs

• 10.000 (1996) to 70.000 (BPS, 2000)• Registered NGOs: 3.000 in 1980) and 13.400 in 2001 • 20.000 (SMERU)• 465 (LP3ES, 2000)

The role of Indonesian NGOs in social and politics is significant

Introduction (3/5) Internet in Indonesia

Since 1994 Internet users increase 770 % [0,5 m (1998) to 4,5 m

(2002)] Cyber activism (socio-political and public participation)

Internet and Indonesian NGOs Survey of 268 Indonesian NGOs: 94 % used PC; 87 %

had access to the Internet (Nugroho, 2008). They believe that Internet strengthens the achievement

of organization goals. The use of internet for advocacy and campaign is not

significant.

Introduction (4/5)

The adoption of Internet (Nugroho, 2008) Internal: to obtain information an improve organizational

effectiveness and effeciency External: bring mutual relationship and collaborations

among organization instead of competition

Internet use for participatory democracy? Workplace participatory democracy (internal organization) Public participatory democracy (external organization)

Introduction (5/5)

Critical Issues1. Internet use as a strategic medium to accomplish the

vision and the mission of the NGOs.• 5 strategic areas (Nugroho, 2008): collaboration, mobilization,

empowernment and development, research and publication, advocacy and monitoring

• Participatory democracy is not strategic use?2. Correlation between internal and external practice of

participatory democracy3. How the characteristic of the Internet relates to the

characteristic of participatory democracy.4. Constraints and opportunities of developing participatory

democracy by the use of the Internet.

Objective and research questions Objective:

To understand the contribution of Indonesian NGOs to develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet.

Focus especially on environmental NGOs Research Questions:

“How do Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by the use of the Internet?”

Sub Research Questions: What are the main strategic uses of the Internet for Indonesian

NGOs? What are the main characteristics of the Internet use for internal

communication within Indonesian NGOs and the development of workplace participatory democracy?

What are the main characteristics of the Internet use to develop public participatory democracy?

What is the correlation between internal and external use of the Internet in Indonesian NGOs?

What are the constraints and opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia?

Conseptual Framework (1/4) Participatory democracy

People participation is the most important quality of democracy

A capacity of people to deal constructively with its tensions so as to make and carry out decisions (Daubon, 2005)

Participatory democracy as a way of life / a form of live (John Dewey)

Participation is sharing and (mutual) contribution can be implemented every where and every time.

Conceptual Framework (2/4)

Which e-Democracy?Escher, 2008

Participatory democracy relates to (or consists of) strong democracy; deliberative democracy, and discursive democracy.

Conceptual Framework (3/5) Strong democracy: “A democracy that

reflects the careful and prudent judgment of citizens who participate in deliberative, self-governing communities.” (Barber, 1994)

Deliberative democracy: “Democracy should be more than just a process for bargaining and aggregation of preferences. True participation requires citizens to engage in direct discussion with other citizens”. (Hindman, 2008)

Discursive democracy is “An approach which puts discourses at the centre of democracy. It starts from the assumption that the deepening of democracy requires the intensification of communicative exchanges in several social contexts, encompassing the definition of rules and institutions, processes of decision making and everyday interactions.” (Dryzek, 1990)

Key Characteristics:

Information refers to knowledge and information. Interaction refers to deliberative; direct discussion; communicative exchanges. Participation refers to citizen’s participation. Decentralization refers to self-governing.

Conceptual Framework (4/5) Key characteristics of participatory democracy

by the use of the Internet Information informed citizenry Interaction deliberation

• Internet is a master medium o the basis of interactivity• Internet enables many kind of interactions and communication

Participation• Citizens tranform themselves from bystanders to actively involved

people. • Offers opportunities for participation and even more direct

democracy. Decentralization

• Non-hierarchical communication• Self-governance

Conceptual Framework (5/5)

Figure 1: The level of the characteristics of participatory democracy

Figure 1: The mixture of the characteristics of participatory democracy

Exploratory research Applies qualitative method using the case studies of three

Indonesian NGOs: WWF-Indonesia, WALHI, and Combine Resource Institution (CRI).

Selections: (1) different level of the organization.

WWF-Indonesia: international/global organization. WALHI: national NGO as a forum in Indonesia. CRI: local NGO (based in Yogyakarta province).

(2) different focus/concern of the organization. WWF-Indonesia: environmental NGO focuses on conservation. WALHI : environmental NGO focuses in advocacy and conservation. CRI : intermediary development organization, focuses on the

development of media/ICT. Methods

Primary: Interviews and Web analysis/online observation Secondary: Literature research and workshop participation

Methodology (1/2)

Web analysis/online observation

No. NGO Name of the medium URL1. WALHI WALHI official website

WALHI official mailing listhttp://www.walhi.or.idhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/walhinews

2. WWF-Indonesia

WWF-Indonesia official websiteWWF Supporter websiteWWF Supporter mailing list

http://www.wwf.or.idhttp://www.supporterwwf.orghttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/supporter-wwf

3. CRI CRI official websiteJalin Merapi (Merapi Network)Suara Komunitas (Community Voice)Saluran Informasi Akar Rumput (SIAR) (Information Channel for Grassroots)

http://www.combine.or.idhttp://merapi.combine.or.idhttp://suarakomunitas.nethttp://www.siar.or.id

Observing online media (website, mailing list, etc.) used by the NGOs.

Methodology (2/2)

Results (1/3) The main strategic uses of the Internet by Indonesian

NGOs are various. The NGOs have different strategic uses of the Internet,

depend on the visions or orientation of the NGOs. WALHI uses the Internet strategically for political movement,

shaping public opinion, and collaboration. WWF-Indonesia uses the Internet strategically for

communication, knowledge management, and environmental contribution.

CRI uses the Internet strategically for developing content management, citizen journalism, and strengthening grassroots.

There are similarities regarding to the main characteristics of Internet use in internal NGOs.

The main characteristics of internal use of the Internet by the NGOs are for communication and collaboration; workplace participatory democracy; and consumption and production (searching and publishing information).

Results (2/3) Information is the main characteristic of the Internet use to

develop participatory democracy by three NGOs. CRI is more advance in respect to using Internet as a means for

developing participatory democracy than WWF-Indonesia and WALHI.

CRI develops participatory democracy by optimizing the different characteristics of the Internet use (Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization).

There are mutual relationships between internal and external use of the Internet, as found at WWF-Indonesia and CRI. However, the development of workplace participatory democracy

does by itself not correlate to the development of public participatory democracy.

There are some factors which influenced this correlation, such as the vision and mission of the NGOs, and the constraints of the development of participatory democracy by the use of the Internet.

Results (3/3) The constraints of developing participatory

democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia are internal constraints; cultural constraints; content production; and human resource competence.

The opportunities of developing participatory democracy by the use of the Internet in Indonesia are the raise of the Internet user in Indonesia; access, hardware, and Internet connection cost getting more

affordable; the emergence of Web 2.0.; the existence of social networking sites; and the raise of citizen journalism movement.

Conclusions The Internet is as a potential medium for participatory

democracy because the Internet contributes toward the main characteristics of participatory democracy: Information, Interaction, Participation, and Decentralization. These characteristics are the ‘cornerstones’ of developing

participatory democracy by the use of the Internet. Indonesian NGOs develop participatory democracy by creating

websites, mailing list or forum. However, they have different strategic uses of the Internet, so that

the implementation and the achievement in respect to stimulating participatory democracy are various.

The Internet plays a role as an empowering tool to strengthen community development because it enhances public dialogue, civil society networking, and strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations.

Citizen journalism or community-based journalism is the best and the most effective medium to develop participatory democracy.

Recommendations The need to raise awareness about the potential use of the

Internet to develop participatory democracy by giving room for sharing information, interaction, participation, and decentralization.

The need to organize the members and people so that they can develop civil society self governance. The role of the NGOs is a facilitator which invites people to get

involved and to encourage people to participate by. The NGOs need to train people and to build their capacity.

The need to developing participatory democracy in a strategic way. Developing participatory democracy is not only by creating website or forum or mailing lists. Websites, forum, or mailing list are just a tool or medium. The

most important thing is how we can organize and encourage people to participate.

Thank you!

© Wageningen UR